At last! The official end of the netball season, with the Presentation held today. And until about March next year I will have my Saturdays back, hip hip hooray and hallelujah!

I have two girls to be very proud of - one whose team won their grand final (in a boilover!), and the other whose team came runners up (and who got close to another boilover!). (Not that I'm not proud of my youngest - she just didn't play competition netball this year, and so wasn't involved in the presentation today.) Ali received the Most Valuable Player award for her rep team from her performance at State Age, and Caitlin received the Players' Player award for her Intermediate team. Which makes this mum very proud and just a little bit teary! I know I do a fair bit of whingeing about my kids, but the truth is I really do appreciate what wonderful girls I have. Sure they have their moments, and I know I can be their harshest critic. The big secret is I'm actually also their biggest fan. I just try most of the time not to be one of those parents who babbles on ad nauseum about how wonderful their children are. Thankfully most of the rubbish happens at home, and I know that "out there" they are liked and appreciated for being great kids - Heck, I've even had a number of compliments about them recently!

And hence, I am proud.

Even more than them happening to be good at netball, I am really chuffed with their sportsmanship. They play "nice". They play fair. (Given that, during this week, I've been composing tearful blog posts in my head along the lines of 'Why Can't They Just Be Nice To Each Other?!!', I'm very relieved that the Not-Niceness that tends to rear its ugly head most often among siblings seems to stay within the home; somewhere along the line we've done something right. They've been 'brung' up to be good sports, and out "there" at least they are good sports.)

This sportsmanship thing has been highlighted even more recently at the netball by the behaviour of one girl in particular. Ali has, this year both played with, and against her. At state age a number of we parents were embarrassed that our daughters were on the same team as her. At club level, particularly when our kids' team overcame the odds and beat this other girl's team (for the first time in the season) in the Grand Final, we held her up as an example of how not to play (and lose your rag.) Her parents don't fully realise what a monster they have, in part, created (because she has been allowed to develop into one).. It has tainted what would have otherwise been a totally brilliant year for the netball association, and because this kid is the daughter of the president, it has been one more issue I have with staying on the netball committee...

It is the AGM next week, and apart from having to get my act together with the minutes, I'll have to sort out the mess of correspondence etc because I intend to hand over the secretarial reins. I figure I'll still handle the website that I do, and any other computer-y stuff. People keep telling me I'm the computer whiz, and thank goodness they have me to do all that stuff. (I just wish I could figure out how to get paid for this supposed expertise!!) I'm just more than over meetings, and letter writing. And getting stuck in the clubhouse canteen week after week. Mostly that last one - which is why I'm doing such a happy dance about getting my Saturdays back.

Theoretically speaking today I had, at least, Saturday morning free. Free to go bike riding without having to hurry home; I mean, even though Marc is away, I have a single road bike, and I am quite capable of getting my bike on the roof of the car, and driving myself into town to the Community Ride. But I blew it. I had my bike ready to go, and cycling clobber laid out and ready. I got up at 5 am. I looked out the window, saw that while it wasn't raining, it was windy. ("Aww, diddums!"). And my back was sore, and I couldn't face trying to lift the bike onto the roof rack, never mind riding into the wind. So I got back into bed, and got up again at 10am!!! I then felt disappointed in myself the rest of the day for not pushing myself through my mental barrier. If Marc had been home I would have shamed myself into it, and then felt good about myself.

Next Saturday he will be away again, so I will try to redeem myself. Another chiro visit will be in order to try and sort out my back, and then all I'll have to do is work on my head!

Labels: kids, netball, parenting